Numerous products require stacking before being placed into a container or being bundled or banded. For example, cigarette packages are stacked one on top of the other before insertion into a box. Hotdog packages containing two half-pound packages banded together are also common in the marketplace.
The packages of articles, such as cigarettes or hotdogs, are produced at an extremely high rate, for example, one hundred to two hundred packages a minute. In the Curwood Royal Vac 400 produced by Curwood in New London, Wis., hotdogs are produced at a rate of about two hundred packages a minute. These continuously produced packages require a feed belt mechanism, such as a timing belt, to receive them from the packaging device. At least one package is stacked on top of another for subsequent banding operations.
The U.S. Pat. No. 3,479,792 discloses a stacking mechanism used in combination with a package banding machine. A platform assembly has a vertical reciprocating movement constituting an elevator type operation which requires a swinging movement of the assembly to perform the stacking operation. This prior art device is incapable of operating at high speed operations. Other prior art assemblies and methods for stacking articles are disclosed in the following U.S. Pat. Nos.:
______________________________________ 2,391,937 3,506,109 2,667,259 3,731,823 2,685,359 4,034,846 2,960,206 4,314,403 3,055,514 4,413,462 ______________________________________
The primary object of this invention is to provide a stacking assembly for receiving articles or packages from a machine at high speeds. The stacking assembly picks the packages up, moves them one at a time along a path with a conveyor means and discharges them at its discharge end in a stacked operation.